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Mutton Pie

A savory pie made with sliced cold roast mutton, gravy, currant jelly, and a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Layer the sliced cold roast mutton in a pie dish.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the cold gravy and currant jelly.

  2. If there isn't enough gravy, add a little water and butter.

  3. Dredge in flour and cover with your choice of crust.

  4. Bake for 45 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold roast mutton
Forms the main filling and provides the savoury meat flavour.
Cold gravy
Adds moisture so the meat stays juicy rather than drying out in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the juices from the gravy and meat into a body-rich sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich meat and gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy and filling.

The step that matters

Dredge in flour and cover with crust. Flour must be evenly distributed so the juices thicken rather than staying watery or lumpy. The crust should seal well so steam stays in and the filling cooks through.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, flour, potato):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, flour, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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